1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electronic communication technologies. In particular, the invention relates to electronic communication methods which include communications with or without base stations, and electronic communication systems, communication terminals, and servers to which the electronic communication methods are applied.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the function of terminals, for example, personal computers, cellular phones, portable game consoles, and electronic organizers, which are used while being connected to network has become more diverse, communication technology has also become more diverse. For example, in cellular phones, the technology which enables data to be transmitted and received between cellular phones in proximity to one another using infrared radiation, electric wave, and wireless LAN has become widely used in addition to wide range communications including regular telephone calls and emails.
In recent years, a technology of ad hoc communications which is responsible for transmission and reception of data between terminals with no base station involved has attracted attention. The ad hoc communication offers direct communication between the terminals when the terminals are located within the range of electrical wave reception, and relayed communication using another available terminals located in between the terminals as relay stations when the terminals are not within the range of electrical wave reception. In this manner, the communication between the terminals can be established without any base stations or wired networks; as a result, the communication can be established affordably and conveniently.
However, the constant search for the best reception route is required in the ad hoc communication in which the large area is covered, due to the fluctuations in the conditions of communication, for example, the movement of the terminal used as a rely station and the disconnection from a power source. For a successful implementation of recently proposed ubiquitous network with the ad hoc communication technology as a core, a number of business and security related concerns should be addressed. For this reason, the application of the ad hoc communication to large scale network is still on the development. Thus, in the technology currently in practical use, data communication through the ad hoc communication is limited between the terminals in proximity to each other.
Therefore, the data is required to be transmitted to a server through a base station for the data communication, for example, emailing, between terminals located far away from each other or emailing to a user not available. In that case, a user is bothered with a series of setups such as registering host email address in, for example, a vendor which manages the server and configuring software (e.g., a mailer) to adapt to the communication environment. The email address is composed of alphanumeric characters and more alphanumeric characters are required in order to have a unique mail address; as a result, numerous chances for human errors such as forgetting the address and entering an incorrect address are involved.
The present invention has been developed in this circumstance and its general purpose is to provide a technique which enables a simple and convenient communication for, for example, exchanging emails.
An aspect of the present invention relates to an electronic communication method. The electronic communication method comprises: allowing a first terminal and a second terminal to be connected through ad hoc communication in order for the first terminal to acquire the identification information of a user who manipulates the second terminal, and transmitting data to the second terminal from the first terminal through infrastructure communication by setting the identification information acquired during the ad hoc communication as a destination.
The term ad hoc communication is defined as direct communication between terminals without involving any relay base stations, and the term infrastructure communication is defined as communication between terminals in which base stations and servers are used as relay stations.
Another aspect of the present invention also relates to an electronic communication method. The electronic communication method is operative to transmit and receive data among a plurality of terminals, and comprises: generating user identification information comprising information to identify a user in the terminal who manipulates the terminal and information to identify the terminal; transmitting the user identification information to a server which mediates transmission and reception of the data from the terminal; storing the user identification information received in the server; and delivering data to the terminal based on the user identification information by the server.
The “data” may be any one data item that can be transmitted and received, for example, by commonly-used emails, such as character data including email texts and addresses, image data including pictures and objects such as characters and items included in the images which can be displayed on the terminal, audio data, archived data, and compressed data or any combinations of these described data items.
The electronic communication method may further comprise: transmitting the user identification information of a destination user of the data from a terminal which the destination user manipulates to a terminal originating the data through direct communication; transmitting, to the server, the data added with the user identification information of the destination user from the terminal originating the data; storing in the server the data received from the terminal originating data, in association with the user identification information of the destination user; identifying in the server the user identification information of a connection originating user who manipulates a terminal newly connected to the server; searching data stored in association with the user identification information of the destination user based on the user identification information of the connection originating user, and specifying data stored in association with user identification information which matches the user identification information of the connection originating user, in the server; and transmitting specified data to the newly connected terminal.
The term “direct communication” is defined as the direct transmission and reception of signals without connecting through any base stations or servers by, for example, wireless signal transmission means such as electric waves or through cables. The “ad hoc communication” may also be included in the direct communication.
Another aspect of the present invention relates to an electronic communication system. The electronic communication system comprises: a terminal operative to transmit and receive data; and a server operative to mediate data transmission and reception among the terminals through network, wherein the terminal comprises a user information management unit which generates user identification information comprising information to identify a user in the terminal who manipulates the terminal and information to identify the terminal, and a sending unit which connects to the server and transmits to the server the user identification information generated by the user identification management unit, and the server comprises a reception unit which receives the user identification information transmitted by the terminal, a data storing unit which stores the user identification information received by the reception unit, and a data delivery unit which delivers data to a terminal based on the user identification information stored in the data storing unit.
Another aspect of the present invention relates to a communication terminal. The communication terminal transmits and receives data directly between terminals or through a server, and comprises: a user information management unit operative to generate user identification information comprising information to identify a user in the communication terminal who manipulates the communication terminal and information to identify the communication terminal; an other user information acquisition unit operative to acquire the user identification information of a destination user of the data through direct communication with a communication terminal which the destination user manipulates; an sending unit operative to transmit, to the server, data added with user identification information of the destination user acquired by the other user information acquisition unit with connection; and a receiving unit operative to receive data, from the server while being connected to the server, in which the user identification information of the destination user matches the user identification information of a user who manipulates the host communication terminal.
Another aspect of the present invention relates to a server. The server mediates transmission and reception of data between terminals through network and comprises: a reception unit operative to receive user identification information comprising information to identify a user in the terminal who manipulates the terminal and information to identify the terminal, which are generated in the terminal; a data storing unit which stores the user identification information received by the reception unit; and a data delivery unit which delivers data to the terminal based on the user identification information stored in the data storing unit.
Optional combinations of the aforementioned constituting elements, and implementations of the invention in the form of methods, apparatuses, systems, recording mediums and computer programs may also be practiced as additional modes of the present invention.
The easy transmission and reception of, for example, emails can be achieved by the present invention.
20-terminal, 22-user information storing unit, 24-user information management unit, 26-data generation unit, 28-server connection unit, 30-sending unit, 32-receiving unit, 34-image processing unit, 35-display unit, 36-friend information storing unit, 38-terminal to terminal communication unit, 40-user information exchange unit, 42-data exchange unit, 50-server, 52-terminal connection unit, 54-reception unit, 56-connecting user information acquisition unit, 58-data transmission unit, 60-data storing unit, 62-destination determination unit, 64-data retrieving unit, 100-electronic communication system, 300-base station.